NCSBN – The National Council of State Boards of Nursing – Serving the Public and Nurses
The NCSBN or National Council of State Boards of Nursing is a non profit organization whose primary purpose is to be the organization by which boards of nursing act, counsel and confer on those matters that have a common interest as to the public’s health, safety and welfare. The NCSBN also functions to develop and implement licensing exams in nursing.
The NCSBN Board Members
The NCSBN is comprised of 60 member boards and this includes the fifty U.S. States, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories (American Somoa, Guam, N Mariana Islands and Virgin Islands), the states that have 2 boards of nursing – 1 for RNs and 1 for LPN/VNs (California, Georgia, Louisiana, and West Virginia), and Nebraska which has a board of nursing and a board for APRNS or advanced practice nurses.
In addition, the NCSBN has 9 associate members that include the following:
- Bermuda Nursing Council
- College of LPNs of Alberta
- College of LPNs of British Columbia
- College of Nursing of Ontario
- College of RNs of Alberta
- College of RNs of British Columbia
- College of RNs of Manitoba
- College of RNs of Nova Scotia
- Singapore Nursing Board
History of the NCSBN
The NCSBN was founded in 1978 and is separate from the ANA or American Nurses Association Council on State Boards of Nursing. Members came to the realization that there needed to be an entity apart from the organization that represents the professional nurses as to the entity that specifically guards the safety of the public.
The member boards of the NCSBN are dedicated to ensuring that nurses new to the field have the necessary skills and knowledge base from which to practice the field of nursing. To that end, the NCSBN created the nurse licensure exam and also became the first to introduce CAT or computerized adaptive testing. For nearly 18 years more than 2.4 million U.S. nursing candidates have sat for the NCLEX exam by way of a computer.
NCSBN Online Continuing Education Courses and Online Study Prep for NCLEX Exams
The NCSBN offers nurses continuing education courses online. The help nursing professionals at every stage from the nursing school student, practicing nurses and nursing instructors. This e-learning community for nurses has very helpful information to help you with exams, documentation and ethics of nursing.
**Important* If you are preparing to take the NCLEX-PN or NCLEX-RN you can go to the NCSBN’s Online campus and review and study for the test. You will find over 1300 practice NCLEX “style” questions.** The cost varies on the amount of time you would like to study for the NCLEX online. Currently the NCSBN offers the following online nursing subcriptions for 3 weeks at $50, 5 weeks at $70, 8 weeks at $100 and 15 full weeks of preparation and practice online for $160. Here is more info about the NCSBN’s review and online studying for the NCLEX-PN exam.
